DO YOUR THING is a dance party that believes in the power of music and art to bring people together. Inspired by old school warehouse parties, happenings, block parties and the DIY spirit, Do Your Thing believes in fun and believes that artist-run galleries are important community spaces. Do Your Thing is thrilled to be collaborating with the Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Cooperative, a group that believes firmly in doing their own thing.
Do Your Thing, hopes that you will too.

On Friday May 19, Do Your Thing presents
DJ Spun (Rong Records, PS1/MoMA Warm Up - New York) &
Paradise Lost DJs (James Bucknell, Mikey Miutante, Silvio Mangles and Brut33) at the
Boomalli Gallery, 55-59 Flood Street Leichhardt.
Visuals by artists from Squatspace, Citylights (Melb.) and more.
10pm until late.
$10 entry
Refreshments available with proceeds to benefit the gallery.
See www.paradiselost.net.au for a map and more info.

DJ SPUN (Rong Records, PS1/MoMA Warm Up, NEW YORK CITY)
DJ Spun is a New York DJ and producer and the curator and organizer of P.S.1 / MoMA's Warm Up Music Series, NYC's best Summertime Party, a beautiful marriage of music, art and community. Together with Ben Cook he runs Rong Records, an independent record label mad on the sounds of Disco, Drums and Dub.

The Paradise Lost DJs

Paradise Lost: is a collective brought together by a passion for adventurous dance music. Expect to hear an eclectic mix of underground dance music from disco to house.
They've held parties in Sydney at the Sly Fox, the Old El Rocco Jazz Cellar and Boobytrap at the World Bar (where they played host to a killer set by Brennan Green (Modal, Chinatown-NYC)).

Paradise Lost DJs are...

James Bucknell plays eclectic dance music predominantly from New York, Detroit and Chicago including disco, electro and eighties house. His passion started on the dance floor at new wave, punk and early house parties in Sydney in the 1980s. He began DJing in New York City in the early nineties playing warehouse parties and club nights in Manhattan and Brooklyn including Bang the Party at Frank’s Lounge. He’s also played with many New York DJs and producers including Kahn, Brennan Green, Dan Balis, Malik Williams (Champion Soul), Ulysess (Scatalogics), John Selway, Silver, Danny Wang, Metro Area and more. In 2002 he relocated to Sydney where he has played at many nights including Hi-Jinks, Deep Space, Teknikal and Club Kooky and at parties for Squatspace, Performance Space and at the Midnight Star. His passion for the forgotten dance music of the 70s and 80s brought him into the Paradise Lost fold. His website is at www.jbucknell.com

Mikey Miutante plays bass-driven, groove-heavy music from raw funk to camp-as disco and hand-clappin, arse-jackin booty house. He's played at many underground parties around Sydney, including Hi-Jinks, Soiree, Pub Day, Wired for Sound and Tampered. He’s also part of the Soul-tech Soundsystem, infamous festivals of mayhem, madness and down n dirty soul muzak. He has joined the unholy Paradise Lost fraternity to help spread the holy word of DISCO among Sydney's fallen angels. He's excited to be part of 'Do Your Thing', and thinks that Sydney needs more events where ALL of the community, black, white, gay, straight or somewhere happily in between, can come together and dance 'til they fall over.

Silvio Mangles plays music from all directions on an arthouse tip including disco, funkified rock, afro and house. In addition to Paradise Lost he also organises and plays at First Blood at the Hotel Hollywood (next party on May 20) and Zeros and Heros at Mars Lounge. On Do Your Thing he says “Can't wait! We've got a killer space, awesome sound, some lovely visual art and will be groovin deeeep on into the night. Not to mention a very special guest from NYC who will not dissapoint. We're hoping to bring together many different groups for this one. Should be a very special night....”

Brut33 is a Sydney Dj who sweats soul and drink disco juice, laying on a bed of electrofunk with a diva on each arm. He co-runs the independent record label After Thought Records
and is a Radio DJ on Alchemy on SBS. He’s been putting on parties in Sydney for
past 3 years with Paradise Lost being the Mothership that is spreading the love. He’s happiest seeing people getting down and going crazy.

Paradise Lost is more than DJs: designer Bahbak Hashemi, James Weirick and Mike Masters work tirelessly to spread the disco message of love.


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DO YOUR THING has invited visual artists from Sydney and Melbourne to do their thing. Some participants include:

Andrew Mac runs Citylights, a public art initiative specialising in street-based collaborative and installations works, and Until Never Gallery, representing art of the streets and fine Australian and international art. (2nd flr 3-5 Hosier Lane Melbourne. Hours: 12-6pm Wednesday to Saturday.) He has been staging outdoor public art events since 1994 and has collected stencil art for the National Gallery of Australia.

Elvis Richardson is a visual artist and lecturer based in Canberra. Slide Show Land is an ongoing archive, started in 2001 of 35mm transparencies purchased on e-bay. It has been exhibited at galleries in New York, Alabama, New Zealand and Australia.

Slow Learner and Nobody are both members of Squatspace, a group of artists and activists engaged with the politics and pleasures of space in the city. From auspicious beginnings at the Broadway Squats in 2000, they have evolved to be a "spaceless" organisation, co-ordinating projects such as the Redfern Waterloo Tour of Beauty, organising events and hosting websites.

David Campbell is a Melbourne-based artist and VJ. He has VJ'ed at Federation Square and regularly at Loop, provided visuals for Groove Armada, and has designed for clients as diverse as Fischerspooner, Lab Architecture and Voiceworks Magazine.

Matthew Poll is a visual artist and the artistic director of Boomalli Gallery.

Margie Borschke believes that throwing parties is an art. She coordinates Do Your Thing and is a member of NUCA the network of un-collectable artists.

+ MORE


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DJ SPUN (Rong Records, PS1/MoMA Warm Up, NEW YORK CITY)

DJ Spun is a New York DJ and producer and the curator and organizer of P.S.1 / MoMA's Warm Up Music Series, NYC's best Summertime Party, a beautiful marriage of music, art and community.

Spun (aka Jason Drummond) tours the world spreading the word of Rong, an independent record label mad on the sounds of disco, drums and dub. Rong has made it’s mark in dance music over the last two years with disco cut-ups, dubbed-out house, downtempo and balearic tracks, releasing work by artists including Ray Mang, Prins Thomas and Chicken Lips and more. Forthcoming are releases by Carlos Hernandez and Quiet Village and a double mix cd compilation of all Rong releases to date. He runs the label with San Francisco producer Ben Cook.

DJ Spun got his start in music playing in San Francisco bands, sharing the stage with such
punk luminaries as the Dead Kennedy's, Black Flag and Social Distortion. A growing interest in rap music put him behind the turntables and in front of a crowd in 1987 – his first gig was an opening slot for Kurtis Blow in San Jose and from there he went on to his now legendary
nights at Club FX. Spun became a central figure in the Bay Area underground party scene, the first California DJ to help forge the amalgam of house, techno, rare grooves and funky breaks that came to be known as "the West Coast sound." He held residencies at such seminal West Coast parties as A Rave Called Sharon, Funky Techno Tribe and The Gathering. In countless guest spots and at his own infamous throw-downs, he continues to host and play alongside some of the world's best known DJ's, bands and producers.

As a producer DJ Spun has explored an eclectic array of sounds. He teamed up with Eric Duncan (Rub’n’Tug), Danny Wang, and Steven Hall (guitarist on many Arthur Russell tracks) to form How & Why and released a 12" Cruisin' on Rong. DJ Spun has also remixed like-minded producers such as Tim Love Lee, Tussle and Mr. Negative (Crack & Speed.) Together with Ben Cook he formed the dubbed-out disco duo Thick as Thieves, recording an LP for Idjut Boys' record label NOID.